[Edaily Reporter Lee So-Hyun ] HyundaiMotor(005380)and SOCAR(403550), along with Apex Mobility, are embarking on the development and demonstration of autonomous robo-taxis (ride-hailing vehicles). HyundaiMotor will provide the autonomous vehicles and systems, while SOCAR and Apex Mobility will combine real-world driving data collected from approximately 25,000 vehicles nationwide with their vehicle operation capabilities to verify the feasibility of commercialization.

SOCAR and Apex Mobility announced on the 13th that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with HyundaiMotor for a “Strategic Partnership on Autonomous Ride-Hailing Vehicle Platforms and Autonomous Driving Data Collection.”

This agreement marks the first strategic partnership that Apex Mobility—which was launched last May with a capital base of 150 billion won—has formed with an automaker.

The three companies will collaborate on: △ validating autonomous driving technologies and services using HyundaiMotor’s AV (autonomous vehicle) foundry business; △ collecting and providing domestic road driving data; △ developing a vehicle platform dedicated to ride-hailing and demonstrating autonomous driving software; and △ sharing vehicle optimization, operational know-how, and assets.

HyundaiMotor to Provide Vehicles and DevKits; SOCAR to Provide Data

HyundaiMotor plans to supply “DevKits” for autonomous driving system validation and pilot operations, as well as ride-hailing-dedicated vehicle platforms, to SOCAR and Apex Mobility.

Starting early next year, SOCAR and Apex Mobility will share domestic road driving data collected from vehicles equipped with sensor kits, along with their operational know-how, with HyundaiMotor. Based on this, HyundaiMotor plans to develop a dedicated autonomous ride-hailing vehicle platform that prioritizes operational efficiency and user convenience.

SOCAR and Apex Mobility will also participate in demonstrating HyundaiMotor’s autonomous driving software by applying it to car-sharing vehicles. The companies will discuss plans to integrate the validated technology and vehicles into future SOCAR and Apex Mobility services.

1.1 million km driven daily… 220,000 edge cases accumulated

The foundation of this collaboration is the massive amount of real-world driving data secured by SOCAR.

The approximately 25,000 car-sharing vehicles operated by SOCAR nationwide are all connected cars, collecting over 100 data points—including driving footage, GPS data, and steering angle—via front and rear dashcams and proprietary telematics devices.

The daily mileage of SOCAR vehicles totals approximately 1.1 million km, which is about 10 times the total length of South Korea’s roads (approximately 110,000 km).

Apex Mobility operates a data pipeline that sorts the raw, anonymized data from SOCAR by time slot and uses a Vision Language Model (VLM) for automatic labeling. The company has accumulated approximately 220,000 edge case data points, including accident footage and e-motion data.

SOCAR and Apex Mobility announced their plans to enter the autonomous driving data business last August at the “2026 Autonomous Mobility Industry Expo (AME 2026).”

Through this collaboration, Apex Mobility plans to expand its business scope beyond data supply to include vehicle validation and, eventually, autonomous driving-based ride-hailing services.

Park Jae-wook, CEO of SOCAR and Apex Mobility, stated, “By combining the vast amount of data we have accumulated and our large-scale vehicle operation capabilities with those of a leading automaker, we are now in a position to contribute to the advancement of domestic autonomous driving technology.” He added, “We plan to systematically implement a concrete roadmap that includes not only the data business and the construction of infrastructure for the stable operation of autonomous vehicles but also the direct provision of ride-hailing services based on autonomous driving technology in the future.”